If it is useful to you, please let me know. It’s always nice to know people appreciate the work.

Here is the ToonDoo Tutorial, titled: Getting Started with ToonDoo

Handout EspejoGerndt

This post is related to the presentation I will be giving at the ASCD Annual Conference in San Francisco. If you’d like to come out, it will be on Saturday March 26 at 5:15 pm in room 113.

By the seventeenth century, the printing press was common throughout Europe, and, “was the core technology that gave rise to the Age of Enlightenment” (Jeff Chase, 2001). Academics and experts alike could share their knowledge and understanding with millions of people.

Late in the nineteenth century, fountain pens were mass produced. Suddenly, everyone could begin writing with ease. But, the audience would be small, isolated to a small group of people at best.

By the late 1990′s, internet became relatively common. Select individuals, with the know how, could create a website within a few days, maybe weeks. But, at this time, most people with internet access were simply consuming the information.

But don’t let anyone tell you that the biggest difference between today and 25 years ago is that students can access and consume the information of the world. While this is partially true, I believe that the most important distinction is that todays student is creating the information. With social media, everyone can be, and is, an important author.

How important? Glad you asked! The picture below is one of thousands of images, blogs and tweets from protesters in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. Average people, connected to the rest of the world through their cell phone cameras and blogs, have made waves by sharing information and rhetoric of the happenings in their countries. The revolution in Tunisia is largely credited to Tunisian use of social media such as blogging, Facebook and youtube to get their message out and gardner support of the world.

So the question isn’t ‘Should we be allowing our students to use social media?’ The question should be, “How do we get our students to use social media effectively, so they can be change agents too?”

Saturday from 5:15 pm – 6:15 pm, Moscone Centre, Room 113

Bring Your Laptops!

In a few more than 24 hours, I will be presenting at the 2011 ASCD Annual Conference with my colleague, Susana Gerndt. The title of the session is “Written Conversations Develop Minds for the Future”, with reference to Howard Gardner‘s recent work. The session might have been called “How Social Media Can Develop 21st Century Skills”. The session description we submitted a year ago doesn’t do justice the importance of technology and social media in modern learning environments, but, the session will. Here is a taste of our introduction:

Looking specifically at the meaning of the word social and then the meaning of the word media allows us to come up with our own understanding of what social media is and can be in our classrooms.  Social media can be cordial, gracious, informative, popular and neighborly. It is created by people for people. Individuals become active participants in a communal understanding that is not limited to their own thoughts, or the thoughts of a select few individual ‘experts’. Individuals are linked to the understandings of the world.  Social media is therefore the information of the community.  Would you rather leverage one person or dozens, hundreds, thousands, even millions of people?  Social media engages students because it gives them a platform to leverage many individuals as opposed to just the teacher.

If all works out, we will run a backchannel using twitter hashtags #ascd11 and #1437 (session number). Tweets will be aggregated on todays meet, here: http://todaysmeet.com/1437.  So, if you plan to come (and we hope you do), bring your mobile device!

1. Expert Keynote Speakers – There should always be a speaker/series of speakers that are experts in their field and engaging speakers – this is a given.
2. Choice – I like conferences that have multiple sessions at any given time with accurate descriptions so I can choose what works for me.
3. Variety in Format – small group workshops with expert help, large group lectures where you sit and get, and everything in between.
4. …

Presentation (Prezi) Here

• https://prezi.com/secure/5bd521c065b84d81a8195ced4b703c52782ac592/
• video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NugRZGDbPFU&safety_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=1

Participate On These Links

Online MindMapping

• http://www.mindmeister.com/78582444/when-and-why-do-our-students-need-to-collaborate
• http://www.mindmeister.com/
• http://www.mapul.com/
• http://www.creaza.com/

Virtual Stickies

• http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/2011jan27
• http://www.edistorm.com/
• http://www.linoit.com/
• http://www.listhings.com/

Virtual WhiteBoarding

• http://www.twiddla.com/477005
• http://www.creately.com/
• http://www.dablleboard.com/
• http://www.imaginationcubed.com/

Collaborative Documents:

• https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aNVBEg5bIJML7GSNCkFiOQmWMCkRTPXRHdSmrBAvmNI/edit?hl=en&authkey=CIfe47IB
• http://www.live.com/
• http://ietherpad.com/
• http://www.mixedink.com/

One are that the ASCD lacks in is support for technology in education. I hope to change this by forming an ASCD Professional Interest Community (PIC) titled: Technology for Teaching and Learning. Please join me in the formation of this ASCD community by signing up here! Both ASCD members and non members can join, the only requirement is that there are a minimum of 15 ASCD members.

On January 5 2011, Microsoft brought virtual reality to the masses by announcing Avatar Kinect. Avatar Kinect will allow users to engage in virtual environments, through an avatar that will depict real facial expressions and movements. Users will be able to enter virtual environments as their avatar, and engage in conversations and various other activities – even learning activities. This could push virtual reality to the critical mass that would make virtual learning environments feasible for millions of people.

Avatar Kinect will be able to run on the over 50 million XBox 360′s that already sit in living rooms – and these numbers are growing fast. It is possible that the software will eventually become available to all Windows users which is about 1 billion people. In the not too distant future this may be a regular way you connect with your students and colleagues – at which point I can finally stop having to worry about aligning my interactive white board!

1. As a KWL Chart (what I Know, what I Want to know, and what I Learned) The first time I used wikis in class, small groups shared a wiki throughout a two-week unit of study. I posted over-arching questions on the wiki, and the individuals in the group added and updated it. At the end they had a nice document with pictures, text, links, videos and interactive applets that helped them understand the content.
2. As A Unit Review I’ve seen a few teachers using wikis at the end of a unit to put together interactive multi-media based notes and questions. In these cases the community knowledge had been less of a focus but the simplicity of a wiki expedited student work.
3. As The Knowledge of the Classroom It is important to honor the ideas and understandings of every student in your classroom. By using wikis you can give each student an opportunity to share their understanding on a topic; a picture, graph, video, experience, applet or other website/resource that helps them represent their understanding. I seen a math teacher once have students use wikis to explain a data set – at the end there were various types of graphs, links images and explanations which became a valuable way for students to gain the perspective of their peers.

I hope I’ve given you some fresh ideas for using wikis in school. These ideas have developed out of work I have done with my district and with my colleague, Susana Gerndt. I would be interested in hearing your feedback in the comments below!

This post is the third in a series of posts I call “Reasons and Tips”

• 7 Reasons, 6 Tips and 3 Uses: Wikis In The Classroom
• 8 Reasons, 7 Tips and A Rubric: The Digital Literature Circle
• 6 Reasons and 3 Tips: Making Cartoons In School

1. Get rid of rows of desks, get kids sitting in groups. Learning doesn’t happen in isolation.
2. Have a class discussion. I don’t mean talk to your kids about something, I mean get all the students talking! (shameless self-plug, but it makes my point)
3. Take a break from grades, and give students descriptive and useful feedback. Read more about this on Joe Bowers blog
4. Engage students with Post-it notes - students can write comments and questions on them while reading/learning/listening and stick them in their books. Very simple, very effective.
5. Let student questions drive the learning – a simple example of how this might look is given by John Scammel on his blog
6. Student lead reviews – at the beginning of class, get students to review what they learned last class, and use this as the starting point for the new learning.
7. If it’s in their textbook, don’t make them write it. I used to do this too; give notes that students don’t really need. If you really want them to have summary notes of the textbook, teach them to take their own – that is much more powerful learning. Read about the Cornell note taking system for an idea of what I mean.

This is by no means a comprehensive list, so I encourage you to share your ideas by commenting below. Good luck tomorrow